Business
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NOTE: If you ask another/multiple questions after I've already answered your previous ones, I'll make another post.
Q&A:
1). I think that one of the issues with the mechanics of Time is its fundamental roots in support; the majority of Time's main actors are usually permanents (Eternity, Sundial, and the well known Hourglass), with its creatures as supporting actors or extras. In addition, Time only has two game-changing spells, Precognition and RT, which also limits Time's unpredictability (compared to the spell-heavy elements of Fire, Aether, Entropy, and even Darkness, it becomes clear that elements with more surprise tactics usually tend to have better strategies). The fact that Time's card pool relies on so many permanents in order to make deck several deck strategies work seems lob-sided, especially in PvE, where Time is usually featured in some way shape or form in order to assist the deck (via preventing deck out, speeding draw rate, etc.). Because of that, I would hope that future development patches would address this issue by introducing spotlight cards (preferably spells, although creatures or permanents are still welcome) to Time rather than providing niche mechanics (see GoTP to complement nightmare and Dune Scorpion to complement Rewind).
Other than that, I think that Time's slowly declining ranking is a symptom of the two major factors; the increasing difficulty in War (despite similar card pools) due to the complicating meta-game, and also the consistency of Time members. I would like to point out that if I were to be made master, (I've tried 3 times already ^^; ) I'd probably be the most active. Not just in chat lurking/spectating enemy decks, but also in more unusual ways by increasing the activity of Time's roster.
2). The specific reason why I left war was two fold; the first was of
time constraints, and the second was to see if analyzing war as an outsider would actually improve my understand of how war works. For the latter, all I would like to state is this: I don't try to hold teams accountable nor would I force to have high expectations when every War is different, but I personally believe that the combination of odd war tactics coupled with skeptical roster choices had taken its toll. Personally, if war is held within september-december, it would be during the time I would have school, but I know how to manage my time (and more importantly, I wouldn't even run for this Trials if I knew that being a Master OR General was going to take more time that I could chew).
As sad it may sound, I think that while Time is represented by both concepts (hastening and slowing) equally, their actual mechanics can seem a bit diminished to other elements. If Hastening was equivalent to gaining card advantage, while Rewind was to denial, their capabilities might appear to be half baked; Aether has TU, Fractal, and Mind Gate as various forms of gaining card advantage quickly (even if expensive), while Darkness, Earth, and even Entropy have much more disruptive card denial tactics (from quanta denial to permanent control). That said, I would lean it more towards the direction of slowing things down; no element is capable of preventing even a False God from advancing to the bottom of their deck like Time, whereas any player with a
and upped Sundial can speed their deck up.
It would obviously be used because of how fresh it is.
But in all seriousness, the fact that it already builds two counters if the OPPONENT draws a card would discourage it from being used in Nightmare-Ghost decks (which is a good thing, actually), but also cause people to avoid drawing mechanics when fighting time; the irony in that statement is that if the same creature is rewound over and over again, the opponent may not have a counter to fight the growing wall. This shield is vastly stronger in capability compared to Procrastination, and despite the expensive cost, I would probably used this even in a rainbow Anti-FG deck if possible. Sundial and Precognition would be two cards that would work even better with this shield than before (Sundial prevents attacks from occuring to avoid shield decay WHILE having the hasten effect, and precognition can serve as an additional damage buffer).
The number of Time stall decks would increase and allow even better diversity in Mono-time decks (as 10 men stated), but I also believe that Time's rush capabilities are to be more desired than the ability to stall.
See 10 men's post. I admit that IGT is probably one of the MOST fun FG decks (both in win consistency as well as theme), and without that, I probably wouldn't have racked such a high score/electrum count (over 260k each) or number of upped cards without the wins. I have a few other favorite decks as well, but they're not nearly as important to me than IGT is.
I think the main thing about Time is its ability to avoid deck out - as I mention before in Zblader's post, while Hastening and draw rate is an important facet of time, no other card in-game can basically stop an opponent's ability to advance their deck OR prevent a player's deck out. I still love hourglasses; they're the heart and core of my entity and are the most important card in the game, but I still think that with cards such as Mind Gate and the upped Sundial, hasten/card advantage can be spread more evenly between elements, whereas Eternity will basically eliminate one of the most embarrassing ways of defeat. ^^;
I think I've tried to avoid making puns so that our element isn't always seen as a 'joke'. But with that said, I've probably made more than I realized in this post.
Quote: "Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so." - Douglas AdamsAnd I also reiterate (again) that while I still love Eternity for being able to prevent deckout, hands down, the Hourglass (not to copy off 10 men here, but hey, I'm the first one with the OG avatar
) is the most important card for Time, until other elements somehow get a 'Hasten' copy or if Time gets even crazier spells/permanents.
If you don't know by now WHY I've chosen Time as my main element, then I honestly don't know what to say. ^^; I mean, it embodies so much of who I am and what I go through on a daily basis with regretting my past, having huge dreams for the future, and overall being fascinated by the element (that I'm still designing a video game around that can be produced one day ^^; ), that I love yet still need to learn more about.
SnoWeb (no offense to 10 men) would be my top choice; he's been consistent, knows his PvP decks fairly well, and is obviously giving me the run of my money when it comes down to both campaigning AND skills for the element. 10 men and PlayerOa are also good choices as well, but I still give props to sno for being the most loyal out of the four contestants.
I don't know what you're talking about in this question.
Oranges are nice, but I don't eat them often.
If I had the power of Time, I would heavily hesitate using it at first, knowing that such action (regardless of it being selfish or matyr-like) could be detrimental to everything I know. But I would most likely try to do research on things such as the Butterfly Effect and probably teach other time-related concepts once I reach my later years (assuming I can't turn back my anatomical clock to achieve full immortality, which would suck most likely anyway), and then try to live a normal stress-free life as now.
Entropy, Gravity, and Darkness are my personal favorites I like to combine with Time (not in exact order). Light, Earth, and occasional Aether as well.
Water (regardless of the Nymph's Tears/Time Tower synergy that I like using in PvP2 occasionally) would be the least I would want to duo with on a serious level, due to their lack of cohesiveness and overall synergy. I automatically dislike using the Fire element for various reasons (and not because their synergy is poor), so I would also hope to avoid using that element alongside Time whenever possible.
&feature=related
Subtle ticking sound effects in the background, but it's not as long nor does it seem like a horrible cop-out of typing the word 'TIME' in the YouTube search engine to find a good song.
To avoid repetition, SnoWeb and 10 men's responses pretty much nail it hard core. Additionally though, Precognition can actually help Time-users SPOT the Lightning within the enemy's hand, so as to see whether or not they have the creature control cards (as stated) to kill off their army or not.
Earth would probably be my best bet in terms of Clock Machinery.
And while you may have already voted, I just want to say this: I will -always- be devoted to Time. Look at the past 3 TRIALS; every single time, I tried out for Time. Loyalty is important to me, and while I may have been swept away by Darkness during the 2nd war, I deeply hope that I can serve Team Time this time around with my improved pvp capabilities (I won a tourney by the way
).
That said, thank you to all those who voted and asked questions/answered them during this crazy trials session. It's been fun.
